The piping plovers in Waukegan now have four chicks on a private beach and one of the people protecting and documenting the endangered birds says the parents are very aggressive when there are threats.
Carolyn Lueck, the Director of the Lake County Audubon Society, was watching the parents, Blaze and Pepper, and three of the chicks, as she talked with us on the phone.
Three hatched last Sunday. The fourth yesterday.
"It is really amazing when you watch how quickly they grow," she said. "Since they were born they've probably doubled in size. They still look like little cotton balls, but their legs are getting very long and they're running around foraging."
She said the chicks are very vulnerable.
And the parents are fierce protectors.
"They're incredibly fierce. Yesterday a gull was coming too close to the beach and I'll tell you something, it was like two little guided missiles took off from the beach and just drove this gull, in the air, they were just flying at it, pecking at it and they drove it very far from the nesting area and then just came around, did these little peeps and got their chicks around them again and took them to safety. They're so fierce."
The piping plovers at Montrose Beach in Chicago, Imani and Sea Rocket, are expecting chicks any day.
The Great Lakes Piping Plover Recovery Effort reported last week there are now 82 confirmed nesting pairs throughout the region.
That's a record. And one more than last year.
